Everything's Supa Safi! (super cool)

The happy couple, together with some guy

Getting Married Tanzania Style
So we got married!

As you all knew, Liisa and I had been engaged when coming to Tz. However we decided to bring the wedding forward, partly because it ahem helped with a couple of tricky visa issues(!)

Organising the wedding was remarkably simple. On the Friday morning we started looking into it, and so went to the Registry Office. After filling in a couple of forms (which referred to Liisa as a Spinster), and handing over a cool 38,000 T-shillings (£15), we were almost ready to go! Although the official didn't fancy much working on Friday afternoon (as is the way), so he checked if we could wait until Monday, so we said fine.

Monday morning 09:30 we return to the Registry Office. The Registrar (Bernard) happily told us he was going to 'skip the legal mumbo jumbo' as we were in a hurry. When we'd said we were in a hurry, we had meant within the next week or so, not that morning specifically!

But first there were a range of marriages for us to choose from:
(1) Monogamous
(2) Polygamous
(3) Monogamous with the option of polygamy at a later date.

After much humming and hawing, we finally agreed on the third option.
(Heheh, not really!)

And hey presto, we're married! We're still planning on having a reception with the families next year when we're back in Europe, and I'll probably have some sort of stag (/30th thing) as well, our timing is just a little all over the place!

Kiswahili and Morogoro

Learning Swahili with our absolutely superb
teacher Benji (who works with KIU)

Last week we took a week-long Kiswahili training course in Morogoro, about 3 hours west of Dar.

Morogoro is a wonderfully scenic town with a great vibe and a beautiful mountainous backdrop, I became instantly jealous of any volunteers placed there!


There were 10 or so of us on the course, half were new arrivals to Tanzania and the other half have been here a few months, so were a step ahead with Swahili. Accordingly we were split into three classes, and for once I was in the Top Class! Liisa predictably was still the best in the class, but I'm not doing bad!

That's not to say there haven't been a few issues with the language:

* If somebody greets you with 'Shikamoo' it's a sign of great respect (usually said to elders, I get it the odd occasion) and one should always respond 'Marahaba'. Don't mistakenly use 'Marahage' for your first three months - it means Beans. 

* When purchasing mosquito repellent: Do not confuse 'Dawa ya Mbu' (Mosquito repellant) with 'Dawa ya Mboo' (medication for the penis).

Animals, innit

Safari
Mikumi National Park wasn't too far from Morogoro, so the lot of us went on a Safari last Friday.

We had a brilliant trip taking a DallaDalla around the park (small bus, usually used for local transport where the regular game seems to be 'how many dozen Tanzanians you can squeeze in').

Yours truly thoroughly enjoying the DallaDalla

We had an ace day and got to see loads and loads of animals! Lions having lunch, hippos, zebra, giraffes, and warthogs (my favourite) to name a few. Some nice pics too!


Until next time, kwaheri!

Mr & Mrs Peilow